Chapter 1005 - The Sword of the Human Realm

When he heard Su Yi’s words, the man in the conical hat couldn’t help but laugh.

His smile was warm and amiable, with no other emotions mixed in. It seemed utterly pure.

And his mellow voice seemed to have the power to touch the heart directly. “You must be the ones who killed my subordinates.”

One sentence, and both Su Yi and the Netherworld King realized who this was.

The Sacred Emissary of the Celestial Palace of the Church of the River of Stars.

Yun Qi, that Guardian of the Faith, hadn’t even known his name. He was a prominent figure with a highly special status!

“That’s right,” Su Yi said, not bothering to hide it.

The man in the conical hat didn’t seem the least bit angry or upset. He laughed, “Then can you tell me what about the sword at the head of the ship makes it so impressive?”

It seemed he didn’t care about the deaths of the Cloud Division Guardians of the Faith in the slightest.

On the contrary, he was much more interested in how Su Yi appraised that distinctively shaped war sword!

This only made the Netherworld King even more unsettled, but Su Yi just shook his head. “It’s an illusion, a shadow. It might look impressive, but there’s no way to know how strong it really is.”

The man in the conical hat gazed intently at him. “Intriguing. I’ve been waiting for you here for a long time. Come on over.”

Before his mellow voice had even finished echoing through the air, the man in the conical hat silently disappeared without a trace.

The Netherworld King exclaimed, “That guy knew you were coming?”

Su Yi rubbed his forehead. “Most likely, yes. It seems… we’ve run into someone quite troublesome. It’s entirely possible that he’s already taken Old Ghost Coffin Bearer and Cui Longxiang captive.”

The Netherworld King’s beautiful face was shifting and uncertain. “That really would be trouble. I suspect that this expert of the Church of the River of Stars is after the secrets of reincarnation as well!”

Su Yi nodded. “But no matter what he’s after, if he’s been waiting here for me all this time, that proves he’s yet to achieve his aim, and furthermore, that I have whatever it is he needs. That’s enough.”

“Come on. Let’s go see what he’s truly capable of.” With that, Su Yi continued ahead, and the Netherworld King followed.

She’d originally assumed that Su Yi would be anxious about this, but now, she discovered that Su Yi was just as calm as before. He had a tranquil, transcendent air about him, as if the heavens could crumble around him and he wouldn’t so much as furrow his brow.

Before long, the sound of gushing water emanated from afar. Misty light glowed in the distance, and a sacred aura permeated the air.

They could vaguely discern the outline of a massive, towering tree. It was so tall that it connected heaven and earth!

As they drew near, they saw that the tree was indeed massive beyond imagination. Its trunk was like a towering mountain range, and each of its roots stretched out like a winding Horned Dragon.

The strange part was that half of the massive tree was vibrantly alive. Its branches were covered in dense, lush green leaves, and it cast a verdant mist.

However, the other half was dried, withered, and lifeless. Its branches were utterly barren, without a single leaf to be seen.

Life and death, withering and flourishing. These stark contrasts manifested simultaneously in the same tree, an unbelievable sight.

The moment the Netherworld King laid eyes on the tree, she recalled a certain rumor——

They said that at the source of reincarnation, there grew a unique divine tree. Half was of Yang, and it represented new life and new beginnings. The other half was of Yin, and it represented death and endings.

Life and death manifested as withering and flourishing, the interchanging of Yin and Yang, the cycle of rebirth!

This was the Sacred Tree of Samsara!

Rumor had it that the roots of this sacred tree were connected to the cycle of reincarnation, and that its branches connected Yin and Yang. They said that each of its leaves was emblazoned with some of the secrets of reincarnation.

There were also rumors that the supreme treasure of the Infernal Palace, the Record of the Netherworld, was refined from a piece of the Sacred Tree of Samsara’s heartwood!

There were even rumors that the treasure of the Bureau of the Six Paths, the Disc of the Six Paths, as well as the Bureau of Adjudication’s Netherworld Judge’s Writing Brush, were inextricably connected to the Sacred Tree of Samsara!

Of course, these were just rumors.

The only thing the Netherworld King dared say with certainty was that the towering sacred tree before them was definitely the Sacred Tree of Samsara!

A moment later, her pupils constricted.

Most of the dense roots at the base of the Sacred Tree of Samsara had snapped, and their pieces were scattered about like boulders.

Upon closer inspection, even the living half of the Sacred Tree of Samsara was enveloped in death qi, and many of its leaves and branches had withered!

Has the tree been damaged? Is that why it’s lost so much of its source power? The Netherworld King was inwardly alarmed.

Su Yi examined the tree only briefly before gazing into the distance.

There he saw a lake, but it had practically dried up.

A single black treasure ship floated above its center.

There were six ritual grounds along the shore, but they’d already fallen into disrepair, and they now lay in ruin.

However, someone stood within one of the ruined ritual grounds, examining a collapsed statue.

A man in simple cloth robes, straw sandals, and a conical hat.

This was the very man they’d seen earlier.

The man in the conical hat seemed to sense Su Yi’s arrival, and he said in a voice as mellow as wine, “They say throughout the ages, only one person has ever been able to awaken the natural order of reincarnation and open that long-severed path to a new life.”

He didn’t so much as turn to look. He simply focused on the fallen statue.

The Reincarnation Pool!

Only then did the Netherworld King realize that the almost dried-up lake was the Reincarnation Pool, the legendary place created out of the natural order of reincarnation.

Rumor had it that a long time ago, the Infernal Palace’s Bureaus of the Six Paths each controlled a portion of the Reincarnation Pool’s power, and they could easily send condemned prisoners into the cycle of samsara.

This could prevent their souls from reincarnating, but of course, similar methods could also help someone achieve rebirth!

However, ever since the Infernal Palace fell back in ancient times, the secrets of the Reincarnation Pool had become nothing but fleeting, unsubstantiated rumors.

“It seems you’ve long since realized who I am.” Su Yi approached, then looked at the black treasure ship floating above the lake.

The thing he’d seen reflected over Returning Streams Peak was just the illusory shadow of the boat. It was only after drawing near that Su Yi realized how wondrous the sword was.

After all, although the lake was on the verge of drying up, its water was condensed out of the Laws of Oblivion, part of the natural order of reincarnation.

Never mind ordinary Emperors—the slightest contamination of the Laws of Oblivion was enough to doom even Imperial Apex Emperors. They would be suppressed within the lake, their bodies shattered, their souls trapped in eternal oblivion.

Yet now, that black ship was floating above the lakewater. It was as black as ink, and made of a material similar to iron, yet somehow different. It was difficult to tell what it was made of, but whatever it was, it could withstand the Laws of Oblivion!

It was easy to imagine how wondrous it was.

“It’s not difficult to guess who you are, and besides, I’ve been waiting for you here all this time. I am well aware that in the current era of the ruined Dark and Gold Star Realm, only Old Ghost Coffin-Bearer and one other are capable of entering this place.”

Here, he turned his head slightly, and those eyes as bright and pure as an infant’s focused on Su Yi. “And that’s you, Su Xuanjun.”

His voice was as mellow as a spring breeze. It was as if he were conversing with an old friend, and nothing about it seemed at all uncomfortable or unpleasant.

Nonetheless, the Netherworld King’s heart filled with unprecedented nervousness.

The more they interacted with the man in the conical hat, the more keenly aware she was of how terrifying he was. The Netherworld King had cultivated for countless years, but even so, she felt stifled, as if she were gazing upon a god!

“Oh,” said Su Yi. He paid the man in the conical hat no heed and examined the head of the ship.

The cross-shaped war sword was embedded there.

And it wasn’t an illusion. Su Yi noticed at a glance that at the center of the “cross” formed by the blade and hilt, there was a name carved in simple text: the Human Realm!

The handwriting was completely ordinary. There was no sign of any unique quality whatsoever.

As if they were the sort of thing you could have encountered anywhere in the human realm.

But when Su Yi gazed upon this sword, an emotion he couldn’t quite put into words arose within his heart.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

This was a sword with the power to cleave heaven and earth and suppress the ten dimensions. Its ring-like guard was like an endless cycle, and it seemed perfect in its completeness.

Yet for some reason, someone had carved the name “the Human Realm” on a sword of this caliber. It was as if a strike of lightning had struck Su Yi’s heart just so; it gave him an unprecedented, inexplicable sense of loneliness.

It seemed solitary, melancholy, like the ancient poem: “You lay buried in the mud at the bottom of the spring, your bones slowly corroding. I remain in the human realm, my hair white with age.”

“This….” Su Yi’s heart shook, and uncharacteristic bewilderment appeared in the depths of his gaze.

A sword, that’s all, yet it silently filled his heart with a sense of solitude and loneliness!

This was unquestionably unbelievable!

“What do you think of this sword now?” the man in the conical hat asked with a smile.

He had his hands behind his back, and his voice boomed like a morning bell or evening drum. As his mellow voice echoed through the air, a formless sensation bore down on Su Yi and the Netherworld King, as if they were facing a god or immortal who’d transcended the world!

“That sword doesn’t belong to you,” Su Yi said directly. “Furthermore, it’s the sword’s suppression that’s been restricting that black ship’s source power all this time.”

The man in the conical hat looked a bit stunned, and his expression turned a bit inscrutable.

He stared intently at the young man in blue standing on the banks of the Reincarnation Pool, and he sensed his calm, tranquil aura. His expression turned a bit conflicted.

“I have to say that you really do resemble an old friend of mine.” The man in the conical hat sighed, as if reminiscing. He muttered, “He once said, ‘Even if gods and immortals really exist, they too must avert their gazes before me! Otherwise, I’ll cut down immortals here in the human realm!’”

Here, the man’s voice filled with heartfelt ruefulness.

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. “That friend of yours was quite arrogant.”

The man in the conical hat couldn’t help but laugh. “Arrogant? Not at all. You only say that because you don’t know how strong he was.”

Here, he gestured to the cross-shaped sword jutting from the head of the boat. “He’s the one who left the Sword of the Human Realm there, and it’s that sword that ruined half a lifetime of my cultivation and all of my hard work! Even now, it’s like a restriction suppressing my little boat…”

The man in the conical hat looked conflicted: his gaze was rueful and admiring, yet it contained lingering hatred and dread!

Su Yi finally looked impressed. “So, the old friend you speak of is the owner of that sword. In that case, he really is quite something.”

Su Yi was a sword cultivator. How could he fail to realize how wondrous a sword like “the Human Realm” was?

And its owner provoked both fear and hatred from the man in the conical hat, yet nonetheless had his admiration. It was easy to imagine how impressive he was!

“Who is he?” Despite himself, Su Yi’s curiosity was piqued.